ABSTRACT
In Stith Thompson's taxonomy, seduction or deceptive marriage is a subcategory of the larger theme of Deception, and he remarks that "there has always been a greater interest in deceptions connected with sex conduct than any other". William little observes that "the semantic and social distinctions that separate seduction and rape were less significant in the Middle Ages than they are in the twentieth century". Some form of seduction is a motive factor in many folktales and literary works, including the foundational narratives of a number of cultures, such as Satan's seduction of Eve in the Old Testament. The motifs of shape-shifting gods and seduction through disguise combine to different effect in some cautionary Latin American variants of the llorona tale. Like Scheherazade, the contemporary Don Juan employs seduction, much of it verbal, to persuade his objects to reject a rigid, destructive status quo.
